The Nakalim
The Nakalim seek relics of their ancient glory which bring them power and knowledge. Lore The Nakalim developed on a dry planet towards the end of the reign of the Endless. Their reverence for the Lost made them an enemy of the Endless, but the Endless were too wrapped up in their civil war to worry about the Nakalim. Once the Endless fell, they were largely alone in a tamed and civilized galaxy full of the Endless's infrastructure. As a result they grew so rapidly that they over-expanded, and the survivors were driven into hibernation--to wait for their prophecy of the Lost to come to pass. Traits Population Traits Beliefs not Breakthroughs The "Beliefs not Breakthroughs" gameplay affinity applies several major changes to the Nakalim. The net effect is to greatly reduce their gain through normal means, and to force them to use a new, alternate mechanic for generation - "relics". Overall, this results in pushing their gain over the course of the full game somewhat towards a linear increase rather than the exponential increase most factions get. Strictly speaking, they still likely have an exponential gain, but it's considerably less so. The first and simplest mechanic is that all generated on systems is reduced by 50% (the wording of this mechanic would make it sound like this is applied at an empire level, but it's applied at a system level, as a final multiplier to the coming out of each individual system). The second is that "per pop" on planet is mostly nullified. The sources of this coming from the type of planet (such as cold planets) are set to zero; and the sources from buildings have been systematically removed (most of the building types which would give per-pop bonuses now give a flat amount, or have been removed entirely). The one source of per-pop they can get is that specifically comes from a population type - populations like Z'vali or Sophons will freely generate the they normally generate, making them especially valuable. Any values provided by heroes or assimilation traits (such as the Pilgrims' Anomalous Research) work just fine. System Development: Because of the unique effects of their affinity, it's worth asking what this does to System Development Upgrades that involve -generating luxuries: * works as normal; the final will of course be halved, but 30 (from 60/2) is still exceptionally good for the Nakalim, worth almost 3/5 of a relic in a single system-dev upgrade. Slotting it into all three tier upgrades (which is quite normal and reliably achievable if any spawns nearby) will give you a final 90 , which is almost worth two relic's income of (which would be 100). * has its effect entirely replaced; you get +10% on System. This is just a flat 10%, rather than having the typical "per system level" effect that most T3 upgrades do (since this is a T2 rather than T3). * works as normal (besides the final being halved when the system's is tallied up). Relics Relics are a special resource the Nakalim collect over the course of the game. Relics by default will each generate +50 , and are considered "unassigned". A relic can be assigned to a special use (either providing an empire-wide bonus, or providing a special, per-hero bonus), at which point it stops providing that +50 . Note that assignment is non-permanent, and non-destructive; you will never "use up" a relic with any usage. Assignment does have a 1-turn cooldown, but the next turn you can freely recover the relic and go back to generating with it. Temple to the Lost The Nakalim have a unique "planetary specialization" they're able to build, called the "Temple to the Lost". The primary use of this is to grow your influence/territory bubble more quickly, and then, when the bubble from this system covers a different player's system, to use influence to "pacific convert" their system to the Academy. This "pacific conversion" is a special action only available when this specialization is present on a system, and it requires no technology to perform (in theory, it would be available from turn 1, presuming your influence bubble could somehow overlap an enemy system by then). Note also that this does not replace your normal ability to "pacific convert" a system to your own faction's control; if you eventually research that technology, you can also perform that action. Converting a system to the academy's control provides several benefits: * The Academy will immediately give you a few relics, depending on the quality of the system when converted. * The Academy will immediately give you some "credit" towards the current academy competition (etc, etc depending on system quality). * The Academy will permanently "tithe" half of the of the system to you. Note that this includes , and is a potent source for the Nakalim. * This system will add +1 to the number of systems you've considered "conquered" for a conquest victory. The current way these work is to reduce the generated by the planet to 50% of its normal value, and also to provide 10 per on that planet, which is an enormous amount for any stage in the game, but it available immediately at the start. (There are no upgrades to make temples's stats stronger as the game goes on, as there are for other planetary specializations, but the default values are strong enough that they don't need it). The temples don't seem to apply any secret multiplier to the rate of influence-circle-growth; they simply provide a lot of influence, and work with the circle-growth mechanic in its vanilla formulation. Strategic Notes: This can give the Nakalim enormous amounts of influence very early in the game - not immediately, since they start the game struggling to generate food on a desert planet, but rather quickly. The lack of food is the major bottleneck on this, since the -50% malus would tip you into starvation if you made a temple on Sobra and also tried to colonize — also because a -50% malus means you've got half the pop growth rate, and this a per-population effect. One you have a decent foothold (even as early as just colonizing another non-sterile planet in your home system), though, you can erect an initial temple for a very high amount of influence. In all stages of the game, the 10 per is an extremely high amount, and will basically solve all of your law upkeep/etc problems for the rest of the game. The pacific conversion is also a powerful tool, and the Nakalim's raw influence growth will tend to bring it into play under reasonably normal circumstances, rather than the very unusual circumstances most other factions have to bring to bear to make it happen, since theirs grow that much faster. The main strategy behind this is simply to aggressively forward settle, since you don't have to be afraid of the mechanic being used against you under most circumstances. Ships Colonizer Strategic Implications One of these slots must be filled with a colonization module, so you at most can equip 2 engines. You'll have average speed. This ship actually has a defense slot, and that's not particularly useful, because (unless you've got some very strange battle tactics available extremely early), you're almost certain to die whether it's equipped or not, if you participate in combat. Explorer Strategic Implications: This is a verbatim copy of the United Empire explorer. The same things apply: As a "pure exploration" ship this has below-par potential, since you only have two slots. You will never be very fast compared to other faction's scout ships, and you'll be even slower if you equip any probes. However, this ship has the potential to have up to 2 defense slots, and 2 attack slots. It's a very solid fighting ship you can field without having to research the actual combat ship technologies, available immediately at the start of the game. Attacker Strategic Implications This is an extremely good ship overall. It has (potentially) a whopping 5 attack slots, though 3 require the upgrade. This is the highest a ship in this class can do, with many other races having to settle for 4, 3, or even 2 on their attacker (TODO: confirm this). It could also (at the expense of 2/5 of its attack slots) go heavy on defense, and could potentially have up to 4 utility slots. Many of these come from optional slots, so the overall loadout will sacrifice something, but it's extremely flexible, and can specialize into being really strong in any direction you want it to be. Protector Strategic Implications Total potential slots on this are 3 Attack, 4 Defense, and 4 Utility, but there's contention on two of the slots. Overall this is a pretty balanced ship able to serve a lot of roles. Coordinator Strategic Implications This has a very low number of squadron slots, like the Riftborn Coordinator: one. It can only field up to 4 attack slots, and it can only field 4 defensive modules, some of which will come at the expense of potential utility modules. As for utility modules, it can field up to 6, which is a high count and lends itself to a lot of flexibility. For attack and defense, these are somewhat "middle of the road" values, which makes this a fairly well-rounded ship, but not "exceptional" at either damage-dealing or tanking. If you sacrifice the defense modules for utility slots, it'll actually be a bit on the fragile side. Since many of the ships this would be flying with will not be able to mount many engines, it's probable that you'll want to put "special utility modules" such as weapon amplifiers or repair modules, in those extra slots. Hunter Strategic Implications Relatively low number of utility slots, but extremely high availability of attack slots, and fairly good availability of defense. Carrier Strategic Implications This overall is a lot like the United Empire carrier, except trading a fixed defense slot for a fixed utility slot. Because of this, several of the same comments apply, and this is also a pretty flexible ship, suited for a variety of different roles. Has 5 potential engine slots, with one requiring the upgrade. By leaning a little more towards utility, this ship will more likely be able to field some interesting modules like weapon amplifiers and such. If you go all-in on offensive slots, it's actually tied with the Sophons for the highest number of offense slots in a Carrier (8) - unfortunately if you do so, you'll be left with a very low number of defense slots (only 3, 1 of which requires the upgrade). One standout feature is that this carrier potentially has a whopping 6 squadron slots, though 2 require the upgrade. This is very high (the average is something like 3 or 4). Potential Unique Faction Quest Rewards Major Note: '''We don't currently have a Nakalim pop icon in the wiki, but the buildings listed in Chapter 4.1 are '''not per population, they're per Nakalim population. The bonuses they give only apply to specifically-racially-Nakalim pop units, not any other minor/major factions pop units. Category:Factions